From: Nelson Bates, President BuySellWebsite LLC Dear Website Owner,

In the last few years I've seen hundreds of websites bought and sold on my marketplace and I wanted to share with you a few tips I've learned about how to sell your website as fast as possible.

When prospective buyers are looking at your website they will almost certainly focus on what your site has done in the past year, both financially and traffic wise.  And will probably base their offer price on these numbers.

If your website is growing and you think the sale price should be higher than just what the business has done in the past year, you will need to show that the website is growing and demands a better price.

In some ways it is shortsighted to focus on the past so much, But for good or for bad the majority of buyers do this, if you don't have a strong history you'll need to do a good job at showing how your business will succeed in the future.

When you list your business for sale always list an asking price, try to stay away from "Make an Offer" or simply "OBO" (or best offer).  Sometimes the potential buyer has no idea of what to offer for a business and doesn't want to offend the owner.  It's ok to use the "OBO" but just make sure you list an asking price as well.

The second thing is to list your Total Revenue and Net Income, even if these numbers are negative, it's ok, if you force the potential buyer to guess what the numbers are, it will invariably be worse than they actually are.  By listing the numbers it gives the potential buyer something to work off of.  Some buyers are actually looking for sites that are losing money to turn them around.

Also, if you don't list your phone number, you might be losing some of your most serious buyers.  The more interested they are, the quicker and more directly they want to contact you and listing your email address only isn't fast enough for some buyers.  So if at all possible, list your phone number.

Furthermore, If your site comes with something not immediately obvious to the buyer, like an email list of customers, trademarks or copyrights - make sure you list that, those are important assets not to be overlooked.

Last thing, I've seen thousands of postings for websites over the years and the most common thing I see is asking too much.  Most people have spent an incredible amount of time working on their site making sure the programming is correct and the layout is just right.  This certainly creates some sentimental value to the owner, but not to the buyer.

It's ok to start out with the sale price you'd like to get out of the business, but if you're seeing a low response rate from your listing after the first two weeks, it's time to drop your asking price.

I've really tried hard to build the best possible place to sell your website on the internet and I think I've done a pretty good job.  Not only do I have listings in every major search engine for selling your website but I also do weekly Newsletter campaigns and rent countless email lists to promote the site to buyers and sellers.  Reading some of my latest testimonials lets me know I'm on the right track.

I wish you the best of luck getting top dollar for your site.